July 2012

CMP Series: Exhibit Hall to Exhibit Mall

By Barbara Palmer

attendees go through the exhibit the way you've anticipated. If you have some form of digital programming, how long are people actually looking at it?

Even better than observing these things yourself is to recruit people “to actually take you through your booth,” Underhill said. “It’s a really cool way of being able to see your tradeshow exhibit through somebody else’s eyes.”

You don’t necessarily have to hire a research firm to better understand how attendees will interact with your booth, says retail strategist Laura Davis-Taylor. Watch how people navigate trade shows, and “when you are out, watch people shop; watch people when they are in parks and interacting with each other,” Davis-Taylor said. “Once you are thinking about it, you’ll see patterns and you get little nuggets of insight.”